Writers and illustrators can find themselves isolated, especially when they get engrossed in a project that wont go away until they've seen it through. Sometimes however, no matter how brilliant the idea is, both writers and artists lose focus and give up, because it all becomes too hard. That's the time to find like minded people to offer encouragement and perspective AND, if you're up for it, a spot of collaboration. Find the right person to put words to your illustrations, or illustrations to your words, and the whole idea springs to life once again. Phrases stick in your mind sometimes. I read this one 16 years ago when I started a Backpackers Hostel in Albany, and I stuck it on the wall in reception where, the last time I looked, it still is, although I'm long gone. It could be the definition of many things. Character, success, life, relationships. Apply it to whatever feels right. I am applying it in this instance to creating brilliant children's books, and making them available to all children, wherever they are in the world: 'THE ABILITY TO SEE THROUGH AN IDEA LONG AFTER THE ENTHUSIASM IN WHICH IT WAS CONCEIVED HAS PASSED.' If you have an idea for a story of book that has been going back and forth through your head for years, but haven't done anything with it, go back to it. Don't let it go. Share it with someone you trust and enroll them into the possibility of seeing it through. |
